I’m about to spoil literally everything, so if you don’t want that, turn the page. This season of Game of Thrones got real again. Last season was kind of slow, and pretty much a bummer all around. Stuff in the east with Daenerys was boring, Stannis burned his daughter at the stake and then lost his battle, the Night King is just getting stronger north of the Wall, and Jon Snow got Caesared.
Please imagine me trying to tell you this whole article in a single breath, because that’s how I felt writing it. I missed my deadline by a mile and more than doubled my word count.
This season began to break out of the heightened medieval mould, and get closer to fantasy. One big moment was the resurrection of Jon Snow. We all knew that Jon Snow would be back this season, no matter how hard HBO tried to get us to think otherwise. Major characters have been killed off before, but only when their storylines had endings around the corner (the Lannisters orchestrate the Red Wedding and end the Stark rebellion), or there were other characters which could continue the story in that region. At the end of season five, the state of affairs at the Wall is still up in the air, and no one else of consequence is still alive up there who could take command of the Watch. Jon’s resurrection means not only do we have one of the better characters back in the game, but he can now actively fight for his family. The Night’s Watch serves to death, and he died. Loopholes rule.
Elsewhere in the North, the Boltons still hold Winterfell. The Boltons are pretty much unanimously despised by the viewership and this season takes it up a notch. Ramsay stabs his dad through the heart, and feeds his step mother and brother to his hounds. Through his keen intellect he deduces that his wife, Sansa Stark, who recently escaped him, probably went to find her brother Jon at Castle Black, so he sends him a menacing message. Ramsay also takes possession of Rickon Stark, the youngest Stark sibling, and threatens his life. This leads to Sansa and Jon rallying as many fighting men as they can find and marching to Winterfell.
Thus begins one of the greatest battle scenes ever, The Battle of the Bastards. Ramsay’s army massively outnumbers Jon’s, but when Ramsay executes Rickon, Jon’s force charges. The ensuing battle was a massive affair, which took 25 days and 10 million dollars to create. It is mostly practical effects rather than CGI, and it looks stunning. After Jon’s force gets pinned down by the Bolton men, they are rescued by Petyr Baelish and the knights of the Vale. Petyr is in love with Sansa Stark, so he couldn’t very well let her lose. After the battle is won and the direwolf once again flies over Winterfell, Sansa feeds Ramsay to his own hounds.The only thing that could’ve made this scene better would have been the Baha Men joining in as Sansa’s backup dancers and singing “Who Let The Dogs Out.”
Another ally of the Starks is Lyanna Mormont, the 10 year old Lady of Bear Island. A competent, effective and intelligent leader, Lady Mormont pledges her sixty two men to the Stark cause. Her real power, though, is her scowl, which she uses extensively on Ramsay Bolton when he promises to pardon her if she deserts Jon. After the battle is done and the Lords and their remaining forces are gathered in Winterfell, she calls out every house that didn’t fight against the Boltons and then proclaims Jon Snow the King in the North, a call that is unanimously taken up. She may only be 5 feet tall, but she has miles of backbone.
Even farther north, we come to another departure from the typical medieval mould. Bran Stark, who was absent from season five, has been learning how to use his telepathic abilities to see events far away and in the past. There are two big ones that we care about: the Tower of Joy and the birth of the Night King. The Tower of Joy flashback occurs during Robert’s Rebellion, and shows Ned Stark rescuing his sister Lyanna from captivity at the hands of Rhaegar Targaryen. He arrives just in time to meet a new baby, and to hear his sisters dying words, summed up as “protect him.” This confirms a long standing rumour that Jon Snow is actually the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna. There are also even fan theories which connect the imagery in this scene to the prophecy of Azor Ahai, the legendary hero of the Lord of Light, meaning that Jon will eventually save the whole damn world. The other flashback concerns the creation of the white walkers, Game of Thrones’ ultimate evil. During this flashback Bran encounters the Night King, who can see him and sends white walkers to find him in the real world. During Bran’s escape it’s revealed that Bran is the reason Hodor, his half-witted friend, is disabled. After making his escape, Bran is helped back to the Wall by his uncle Benjen, whom everyone thought was dead. Turns out he was, but was resurrected by the Old Gods.
Down south, in King’s Landing, nothing really happened for about nine episodes. There was the typical political manoeuvring and “I’m gonna kill you as soon as I can” subtext, but no one really gained or lost anything for a long time. Margery Tyrell allied herself and Tommen with the Faith against the Lannisters, but was really just trying to free her brother Loras. Most of the plot centered on Cersei Lannister’s upcoming trial. During said trial was when stuff got real in the capital. A long time ago, it was revealed that the Mad King Aerys had built up huge stocks of an explosive called wildfire throughout the Capital, and Cersei decided to make use of one of these. The one right under the church where her trial is being held. While every one of her enemies and rivals in the city are in the church. Well played, except that her son, King Tommen, truly loved his wife Margery, who you just blew up. In his grief Tommen took his own life, leaving Cersei childless but the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.
Her brother/lover Jaime was out of the city doing General things while this was happening, returning during Cersei’s coronation. Jaime has a storied history with people who plan on blowing up cities; he broke his oath and killed the Mad King when he ordered the city destroyed. Now Cersei has done exactly what Aerys had planned on doing. Jaime has been gaining more and more of a conscience as the series has gone on, and is become one of the characters you can root for. Everyone loves a redemption story. The bombing and the death of his son as a result may be enough to align him against his sister.
Elsewhere in the Seven Kingdoms, everyone’s second favourite member of the Night’s Watch finally grows a backbone. Samwell Tarly takes his partner Gilly and his adopted son Little Sam to his family home, Horn Hill. When his father Randall, a cruel man, learns that Gilly is a wildling, he agrees to take her and Little Sam in at the price of Sam being even more disowned. Sam stands up to his father for the first time ever and steals his family’s Valyrian steel sword Heartsbane before leaving for Old Town with his family to become a maester. Once in Old Town, Sam comes to the Citadel library, where the audience views something very interesting. The library contains the orrery, a model of the solar system, from the series’ opening credits, and another contraption that uses lenses to direct light. This could give a cool interpretation to the series, that we’re actually viewing a historical account right out of the Citadel’s library.
The last major Westeros storyline was the return of the Hound. Having changed his ways after his near death experience, Sandor Clegane just wants a quiet life away from the fight. This changes when the group of villagers who have taken him in are slaughtered by bandits. Sandor hunts them down and finds them in the hands of the Brotherhood without Banners. Although they had their differences in the past, the Brotherhood convinces Sandor to join up with them for a time while they travel north. The Hound is also becoming a favourite character of mine, showing his own bleak sense of morality and justice.
The Starks were generally viewed as the heroes of Game of Thrones from the start, but over the years they’ve been up to some questionable things. Arya, the youngest daughter of House Stark, sought out the Many Faced God in Braavos last season and gave up her name to become a master assassin. Throughout this season though she realizes that being an assassin means that you have to kill whoever you get hired to kill, even if they’re good people. The good old Stark morality kicks in and she gets the heck out of Braavos and heads back to the Seven Kingdoms to start knocking people off of her own hit list. She starts with old Walder Frey, avenging her brother Robb and their mother Catelyn.
Another redemption story this season started on the Iron Islands with Theon Greyjoy. A few seasons ago Theon betrayed his friends the Starks, and karma hit him like a truck. After spending seasons suffering at the hands of Ramsay Bolton (may he rot in pieces), Theon finally makes it home. After his father is murdered, he resolves to help make his sister Yara the Queen of the Iron Islands. Their uncle, the same dude who murdered their dad, shows up though after being away for years, and ruins their plan. They take the day by stealing the Iron Fleet and sailing to pledge allegiance to Daenerys. Over these events Theon can be seen getting his confidence and will to fight back.
That brings us to Daenerys, who had a real slow burn of an arc this season. Long story short, she was captured by a Khalasar of Dothraki and brought to Vaes Dothrak to live with the other Khal widows. Instead of doing this, though, she burned down the central building, along with all the Khals inside it, and walked out unburnt for the whole world to see. In awe of this, the Dothraki all swear themselves to her. Daenerys should seriously consider a career in firefighting, but that’s beside the point. Her exiled counsellor Jorah Mormont and her lover/General Darrio had come to her rescue and helped orchestrate this. She reconciled with Jorah, but sent him away again to find a cure for his leprosy-like skin condition. When she returned to her city, Mereen, she found it besieged by her old enemies, the Slave Masters. Tyrion Lannister, who had been ruling in her stead, assured her that the city had been on the rise before this. Daenerys unleashed her three dragons on the Masters’ fleet and they surrendered quicker than they could wet themselves.
Daenerys’ alliances grew this season to include houses from Westros. The Greyjoys sailed to find her, but other great houses also rallied to her cause. Varys, the former Master of Whisperers in King’s Landing, arranged an alliance against the Lannisters with the Martells of Dorne and Olenna Tyrell, who had left King’s Landing before Cersei’s trial. These are significant allies. Lady Olenna’s only remaining purpose in life is vengeance on Cersei for the murder of her son, grandson and granddaughter. She also heads up one of the richest houses and regions in Westeros, meaning she can field a massive army. Lastly, she has Randall Tarly, a fierce and experienced General, as her sworn bannerman. The armies of Dorne are also not to be trifled with, and the Martells hate the Lannisters more than the Lannisters hate the thought of being poor. All in all, Daenerys seems pretty set to mow over anyone in her path. The Iron Fleet, along with the seized Masters’ ships, are fit to carry her armies to her destiny.
So yeah, stuff happened this season, but Jon Snow still knows nothing.
Season Seven is going to bring many things to a head. The Lannisters aren’t going to like that the Starks have the North back, but they’re also probably going to be occupied with the Targaryen forces. Jon Snow, the new King in the North, needs to do something to get ready for the Long Night and the Great War with the white walkers. Sam is finally going to read a bunch of books. I can hardly wait.
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